In recent years, there has been an increase in use of electronic money. In electronic money, money amount information called a value is related to money value and, by increasing or decreasing the value, fund settlement is made.
FIG. 15 is a diagram for explaining an existing electronic money system.
An electronic money card 92 is an IC card carried by the user, and, on a built-in IC chip, the balance of a value, an IC chip ID for identification of the IC chip, an electronic money number, and so forth are recorded.
A payment terminal 91 is installed in a store and so forth, performs short-distance radio communication with the electronic money card 92, and executes payment by a value by increasing or decreasing the value of the electronic money card 92. The payment terminal 91 records the history of transactions with the electronic money card 92 as log data and transmits the log data collectively to an electronic money server 2 at regular or irregular intervals.
FIG. 16 is a flowchart for explaining payment processing performed by the existing electronic money system.
First, an user sets, on the payment terminal 91, the electronic money card 92 on which a value used for payment is recorded.
Next, the payment terminal 91 receives the input of payment amount information from an employee or the like of a store (step 5). Then, the payment terminal 91 performs polling on the IC chip of the electronic money card 92 (step 10).
In response to this, the IC chip returns a response to the payment terminal 91 (step 15). At this time, the IC chip transmits the IC chip ID thereof to the payment terminal 91.
When receiving the response from the IC chip, the payment terminal 91 requests an electronic money number from the IC chip (step 20). The electronic money number is information by which the IC chip is identified in the electronic money server 2.
When there is a request for the electronic money number from the payment terminal 91, the IC chip transmits the electronic money number to the payment terminal 91 (step 25).
When receiving the electronic money number from the IC chip, the payment terminal 91 requests authentication information from the IC chip (step 30).
In response to this, the IC chip transmits the authentication information to the payment terminal 91 (step 35).
The payment terminal 91 receives the authentication information from the IC chip, authenticates the IC chip, and requests the IC chip to provide notification of the balance of the value (step 40).
When receiving a balance request from the payment terminal 91, the IC chip transmits the balance of the value that is currently recorded thereon to the payment terminal 91 (step 45).
When receiving the balance from the IC chip, the payment terminal 91 requests the IC chip to perform balance update in such a way as to update the balance of the value to a money amount after payment (step 50).
When receiving the balance update request from the payment terminal 91, the IC chip updates the balance of the value (step 55) and transmits an update completion notification to the payment terminal 91 (step 60).
When receiving the update completion notification from the IC chip, the payment terminal 91 creates log data about the payment made this time and ends the payment processing.
The payment terminal 91 accumulates the log data in this way and transmits the log data to the electronic money server 2 by batch processing later (for example, about once a day) (step 65). The electronic money server 2 receives the log data from the payment terminal 91 and records the log data (step 70).
As described above, in the existing example, the balance of a value is recorded on the electronic money card 92 and is processed locally between the electronic money card 92 and the payment terminal 91. Therefore, the existing example does not manage the balance in real time on the electronic money server 2 side.
On the other hand, in a “server controlling payment system” of Patent Document 1, a technique of recording the balance of an electronic value on a server with the balance being related to a prepaid card, reading the prepaid card by a card reader installed in a store, and making payment with the balance of the electronic value recorded on the server, the balance being related to the prepaid card, is disclosed.
With the technique of Patent Document 1, to check the balance to be managed on the server side, the payment terminal is connected to the server online at the time of payment. Therefore, this technique cannot be applied to a case where a payment terminal having the online connection function cannot be installed from the viewpoint of a physical environment, cost performance, and so forth.